Plenty of movies feature massage scenes, what I’ve always wondered is why they always have to be related to “glad females” or the sort. What’s best about massage if you ask me, is the authenticity of it all. When people say they enjoy massage tourism, it can mean two totally opposite things. I personally love to experience massage in different countries when traveling, and look for something that’s real and authentic to according to tradition. This stuff has been invented way before the christ, so naturally the best way to find the best massage is to find people who respect that tradition. In China, massage is a big and integrated part of the traditional Chinese medicine known as TCM. In the west you just pop pills in your mouth while your body stays tense and stressed out, not to mention that a lot of modern medication increases bodily fatigue. But in China and a lot of Asian countries they have understood things the other way around. In fact it’s quite certain that a lot of things in the west can be considered being the wrong way around, especially when it comes to healing and medicine practices.

Just like in the movies, a lot of professional masseurs in the states and elsewhere are pretty expensive. Of course if you have the bucks they can be pretty easy to find, by looking for medical services. But massage is a holistic practice at it’s best, which is something that if somewhere, in China people can understand. Amongst the abundance of dodgy establishments, non-licensed parlors, foot massage where you go to drink beer and chat.. there is a whole industry lead by people who are experts in their profession and can be call even gurus. With magic hands, the most skillful of massage in China can cure illness, pains, mental health and just about anything. But it must be combined with advice on how to maintain that blissful state that you get after a long and profound massage experience. This is done by maintaining those achieves energy levels, and making sure through diet and exercise that your life energy flow is in balance. It consists of yin and yang, more commonly known in the west as positive and negative energies. Everything needs to be balanced according to traditional Chinese medicine and that my friends they don’t teach in the movies unfortunately! You need to travel and venture to some of the most peculiar looking massage places in small streets, that’s where you need to go to find your own guru who will show you the ropes. This even in the west with money can be difficult, in fact there is a Chinese guy in New York who is famous for giving massage for free. Because his passion is to help people and through this compassion he is able to do work that is considered miracle in magnitude.

In real life, my best experience are in China without a doubt and namely the city of Beijing has been the prime target for holistic experiences. In this city, you can even spend a little extra for a luxury spa and they carry not only awesome staff but take pride in mastering unique, licensed practice. In fact, if you are a first timer, I suggest to go and experience a really good Beijing foot spa which will get you interested. It’s not just all pure pleasure as pushing the points in your feet that have problems in them, will hurt more or less. But that first real sensation of having five kilos lifted off your shoulders just by pressing the right buttons is an eye opener. From the foot massage, you can evolve to more holistic stuff like full body massage and stone therapies. Once you are sure that massage is your thing, you are ready to venture to those small streets and experience action on the level of films. And dear god, make sure you don’t venture into any bad places that sell extra services because they are dangerous and not that fun really. China is a country were sexually is repressed and those kinds of jobs are really looked down upon. In fact, it is a huge shame to do such work even though all the men that commonly use this services will feel like everything morally right. But looking at the state of the workers, there are a lot of sad souls out there so just be carefully. Get a recommendation of a medical practice establishment, where they concentrate on healing you and I guarantee this will be a much more memorable experience than getting ripped off and loosing your wallet to some scumbags.

So many colorful and interesting theatre plays have existed since the roots of entertainment in the civilized world. This was way before filmography set it’s foot into the array of entertaining media. But the two are largely connected with still many people who have lived and made the shift between the two. Sometimes they are also combined together to make opera within films themselves, which is another subject I won’t go into that much.

While the forces from opera to films have been great and continue to influence the global markets, there is also the opposite which is a less known phenomenon. Many people have set out to train to become a projectionist, yet moving picture has less seen a move to opera play. As a producer of some, interesting films I had no idea about the origins of movies. Neither had I ever really ventured into the world of Opera, not counting the occasional “Dancer in the Dark” type of musical that would catch my attention. Far from the Icelandic world of Björk, I once again found myself from an interesting group of entertainers in the city of Beijing, China. I had indeed come to see the famous Chinese opera that was suppose to “knock my socks off”, which it did.

While I would never have the courage to practice Peking Opera with the discipline required in the origins of this age old performing art. It gave me a huge amount of inspiration for my own production as well as the motivation to spread these ideas around. It’s amazing when something as traditional as Opera can still be challenged as a concept. Even with something so ancient but relatively unknown, many people are not ready to be shocked by it. Which is a good thing because in my own movies, it’s all about bringing new ideas and shocking the foundations of thought. The particular performance I had the pleasure of watching in Beijing was at the “Huguang Guild Hall” theatre. A glorious 1807 build venue that was considered as one of the greatest Peking Opera theaters of all time in mainland China. While the fame has left the scene at this small, but attractive building and performances are much less bigger than in the old times.. it’s all the more attractive because it remains as a hidden gem amongst the old hutongs in the lively Xicheng District of the city. When opera is mixed with real life and a busy street scene, you can already sense the originality of the acts. The training is a lifetime work and you need to be very dedicated to get on stage to perform here for a mostly Chinese and local audience. Only a handful of tourists like myself end up there, who can appreciate the art even without understanding the language. Sometimes I wonder if even the Chinese can understand this ancient and twisted mandarin and is displayed with high pitch singing. It sometimes even hurts my ears but well blends with the rest of the noise and beautiful choreography on stage.

Without a doubt, the Huguang Guild Hall will continue to inspire my career in movies. And for me it’s the other way around, going back to opera having started from modern filmography. I guess if you look at the many productions I’ve done, it’s kind of obvious that I just have to do everything the other way around. Which is not the wrong way around as one small child once taught me. Enjoy!

Remember those small Quicktime movies that you downloaded with your modem for ages and even though they could support a very small screen size, with poor quality.. just having moving video on your PC was exciting as hell! By then, everyone was embracing the benefits of video files within the confinements of the bandwidth and processing power at the time. Yet doing the same for movies and films was just something unimaginable. Pc’s were just bringing a modern luxury which was still inconvenient enough to loose to a walk to the nearest DVD rental store. Then came broadband which changed everything for ever. But then came HD quality video and streaming power which changed everything once again for ever. The progress was so fast that it’s easier to remember those times when there was none. Technology was fast to adapt and those with rental or other conventional businesses such as DVD copy sales were the slow ones. Shutting down stores and blaming piracy, just as the music industry. Yes, especially in the horror movie industry there are plenty of collectors who like to have their flicks wrapped in gore galore with nice DVD jackets. Even VHS seems a never ending format when it comes to true movie freaks. But this post is not about the material world in it’s traditional sense, it’s about the digital times that have come for good. At least, as far as we have a good supply of electricity available.

Setting up a website that supports movie streaming is not as easy as it may seem. Along with the abundance of web hosting companies like Dreamhost, InMotion, HostGator, Hostwinds, Media Temple, GoDaddy, 1&1, SiteGround, Bluehost and many more it’s easy to get lost. Just choosing any cheap host just isn’t going to do it, especially if you are running WordPress which most likely you are. Yes, it has been estimated or claimed that WordPress is being utilized by around 25% of all the websites in existence. Now that is a staggering number and along with all the other Content Management Systems out there, it seems that old times of HTML optimized speed performance are another fading factor from the internet sphere. So while on one hand the we don’t need to trim code to get sufficient performance out of website performance, on the other side of things websites are getting a lot heavier. WordPress being probably the biggest culprit for eating web resources, those that in return we need to push up. We have settled with the popular HostGator WordPress Hosting which has gotten surprisingly good reviews. While it’s a big company, it’s also affordable and the results simply speak for themselves. Even having just little experience of using the provider, I am absolutely thrilled by the huge boost in performance I have seen with HostGator. They also have an ordinary and cheap plan that’s for just regular bloggers. But getting the most out of your CMS install so that it can stream large quantities of data without any worry of lacking in resources, these kinds of WordPress Hosting options have been a welcomed addition to those who cant afford their own code.

In conclusion, we have approached a milestone in hosting and running online movie businesses. You could say, that while in the old times anyone could setup a movie rental shop, now with even less difficulty one can start streaming them from your own website. With the abundant plugins, widget and ready made themes that facilitate the easy use of WP, even dear god cannot stop us now! Embracing the future is the only way to tap in to modern cinema. A spectacle that needs to be experienced to be believed in!

It’s been quite some days, time is going fast as is the pace of life here in the land of the republic. Contrary to misunderstood belief, the Chinese talk alot and are very open. Something hard to imagine, is an isolated Chinese but I am sure that they do exist. But in a social culture, where no one except me goes to eat outside alone, there must not be so much understanding for lonely souls. But it’s fantastic when you get into that social sphere or things. Also it’s important to manage it right so that you can have the right distance with people. There are many, who prefer to spend every moment of their lives with someone. Constantly talking, the chatter box continues. I need a bit of space for myself from time to time. One way to get that, is to be yourself. And as a crazy movie director personality, being one hundred plus one percent original is not going to fit a hundred percent either. Leaving mostly those friends who are really interested in creating their own lives.

Just as lonely people, it’s sometimes hard to imagine highly independent and career driven Chinese people. But as high as the contrast is to the ordinary folk, they are as highly proficient in their ways to navigate through their surrounding landscape. Not just in the major cities such as Shanghai & Beijing, but smaller cities always have their entrepreneurs and uniquely talented people. Now more than ever, the Chinese have the resources to take all that brilliance to use. One should just get out of that comfort zone which to Chinese is doing everything together. And of course it is both a strength and a weakness just as anything in this life.

But how to penetrate to the movie, show and nightlife industry of China is a question that is constantly in my mind. To see a movie like Dear God No on the screens is going to be the ultimate step of a new kind of government for the country. So it’s definitely not on my list of priorities. I am more interested in the reality of things, how we can start to approach that and have expression as the underlying force of freedom. This is much more than just talk about art, movies or performance. The surroundings of this place, have been moulded to hard clay. To loosen it, they need an axe. Then add in the western viewpoint and you really have an interesting situation in your hands.

Sometimes I feel like it’s all about the mind. It takes different shapes and creates the surroundings which facilitate our livelihood. But instead of just going from one fixed way of thinking to another by outsourced forces. It all needs to be broken and built again from scratch. For this, we need crazy films and productions that make us horrified, disgusted and delighted all at the same time. We need to feel and find stronger moments in life that makes us life our assess to heaven, bloody h*ll!

Oh my god. I had landed to the country where horror is hard to find, and it feels like a teddy bear world made for a controlled population. And when I say that people are controlled, I don’t mean that in China people would be any more or less subject to this stuff. In fact, I believe that in the west the conditioned mind is even stronger in some ways because there are absolutely no control to what kind of “poo” you can give to the audience and wash their brains with. In China, everyone is strictly monitored, censored and published with permission with the government. That’s why even in a city like Shanghai, going to a movie theatre might land you with a scene where Japanese are getting beat up in war. That’s because the government favours things like, hating the Japanese and praising the Chinese. So including that stuff into your movie, will increase your chances of getting approved. Now that is f*cked up to say the least but hey, in America that standards of “being approved” are just different. And being censored means that no one funds your production, and therefore there is no way to release your movie. It’s all controlled wherever you go is my point.

But for this and other reasons Shanghai is actually a very very fun place. Especially if you have a friend with you. Mine is a local guide called ‘Adam’ and he has been very considerate and skilful in English. (You can get to know more about this private tour guide services at www.adamtourguide.com which is awesome) As well as, best of all knows a lot about the city and it’s huge number of movie theaters! In other words, he is my private Shanghai tour guide and a very good one at that. He doesn’t believe in god, but his religion is money and only a little bit of help, is in fact a big change in his wallet. That’s why people like him are very motivated to work very hard and to give me the best service possible. It’s not always that simple, but I have found it to be a very big element in this game of life that is going on in the big city.

I have been enjoying the nightlife, some theatre productions and even Chinese acrobatics (more about that later guys). Plus of course I went to see some Chinese movies that had English subtitles on the bottom. One thing that I noticed was that the subtitles are very fast so you have to be a fast reader to get the most out of the them. It’s just one of those curious things in China, where some things are just for the sake of being. Perhaps the government has decided “we will have English subtitles on all films to promote learning of the language amongst Chinese”. Which actually has no effect on that and also because it’s probably not being monitored very well, you end up with money being thrown into expensive translations that no one is reading, or isn’t fast enough to read. But then, some guy from the USA comes to Shanghai and is like whoa, subs.. I can understand this and his happy at least. It’s really funny how China is full of these interesting facts.

Adam has often pointed out to be on my private tour that his guidance is to experience the real, local China. Their way of believing this is almost like if you are on your own there is no way to experience the country. I don’t think that’s entirely true, but having a guide is extremely helpful for those who are not on a budget. Either way, this city is extremely enjoyable and I recommend it to anyone, no matter what kind of films you like to watch.

I haven’t really thought about what to write next, except that it must be something related to the movie and godly world. It’s because in life, the next chapter is not something that is already written. Many people think that movies are made in that way, so that the script you have made for it is what ends up in the movie. The truth is, that there is a huge amount of work being done to change and make the script adapt the circumstances that exist. Doing things and acting out in the real world is much different than planning for it. While most movies could never see a good mode of development without an accurate plan, it always changes. These changes are often rather dramatic and end up being enlightening experiences. For a director, it’s a moment of learning any second of the whole production process.

Having gone through these transformations, both on screen and within myself. I can say that regarding career choices, this one has been by far the most rewarding. Not everyone can do it, and it really takes balls to make it through this competitive world. Funny though, it’s just never enough and anyone who becomes successful in directing is going to look for more and new ways to express themselves. Perhaps there is a common feature of movie makers in general, that they need to be heard and seen. Not always liked of course, which is why I have always encouraged the most raw and selfless form of “flick production”.

The next step for someone like me, was travel, cultures and other countries. It didn’t have to be a movie production, but any kind of shows and theatre became something very much of interest to me. In the following few posts, I will be discussing come of the great journeys through the even greater land of China. In the republic where everything is colour red, well oh my god, blood becomes beautiful. While horror is not well known in China, perhaps it’s time to look into other genre of art. Or perhaps, introduce some of the western habits to the Chinese people. Likewise, at best this trip is going to be a learning experience for everyone involved.

Everyone has their salt in life, right?! Mine is in travelling, exploring and roaming through this weird and funny world. At least that’s how I see it and I totally know how others will see everything in a totally different way. It’s called human nature as it is often talked about.

I think that the way I see has been shaped a lot by the films, especially when it comes to horror. Making a horror flick is something where you don’t care a shit about the viewer. Instead, it simply leads you to a dark place within your own mind. This moment in space, and time is one of the most creative and beautiful things I know that exists. It might not be the perfect outcome for a film but it is a rewarding experience.

When I do my trips to somewhere in some corner of the globe, I have a similar flashback. I go to places I have never been to and seek for experience that makes me wonder or ask the question: “What the heck am I doing here?”. It’s all about the rebel within us, that doesn’t believe in god but goes beyond it in a universal existence and understanding. I don’t even like to have much salt in my food but it is perhaps because there is not that much need for it in a trippy life like mine.

Perhaps you are wondering, when I will get to the point and reveal the stuff I am doing on these trips. All I can say to my dear readers, oh my, the time will come sooner or later. Better later, but not as late as a movie production would ever take to release a film. Because this stuff is live with authentic intent to be something individual, something unique that at the end of the day after writing all this I wil think to my self: “Why the heck am I even trying?”. But the answer is in the question, which makes me and my friends think forever. Because there are no ultimate answers, there is only the experience here and now.

So if you think different, challenge me please. I love to change my way of thinking, over and over again. Doesn’t even need to be something better because if it sucks, like a bad movie or something, then I won’t stick around for long. Another fact that we can call human nature.

I remember how it started, it was the first ‘horror’ film I ever saw. It was The Terminator 1. Well, it is not actually a horror film in the sense how films are nowadays. But I was very young which made it even more terrifying. I believe the actual genre of the film is action if you refer to it in todays terminology.

In my family, parents didn’t allow watching scary films. Terminator like many other movies had an age limit, 16 I believe. And now I believe even further, that this age limit is for a pretty good reason. There was a friend who had the privlidge of having all the scariest films. I wasn’t up for the most horrifying stuff so we decided to watch this classic instead.

I remember that the story was a lot about running a way. Similar to many other horror films which have this theme. You have the bad guy, and then you just run, run as far as you can. But still, that guy is out to catch you. In this case, the guy was a particularly bad nasty with a lot of super natural skills that could kill you in a second. That’s where the terminator came in to protect the little kid who’s purpose is to safe humanity in the future from evil robots and such. Probably you know the story already but it was pretty impressive as a child and I couldn’t help but watch it until the end.

But on the negative side of things, it really impacted my life. Probably it helped to trigger some fear that was already within. Because I got scared at things like going back home. But in the end, I realised that this fear was something I just had to man out so to say. I did stuff like going out at night in the dark, even though I was scared and didn’t want to. Phasing your fears became like an addiction and here I am, doing the craziest shit and travelling around the world. From China to Japan to pretty much anywhere far.

I don’t know if it’s the Terminator movie I have to thank for to have made it this far. But surely it was one of those important events in life where it was good that I didn’t listen to my mother. And I think that there are a lot of moments like that in life, throughout life in adulthood too. This was my little introduction to myself, somewhat weird but hopefully interesting enough for you to have a read, as well as a laugh.

Anything that stands out deserves the chance to be watched. It’s pretty obvious that most of the stuff available today is going to either terrify, or to please. Dear God No Movie was one of those cinema spectacles that didn’t go down the pleasing road. Instead it set out to travel out into stupidity with it’s brilliance if that makes any sense at all.

It was a corner stone of achievements for many, including the directors, the actors and even the spectators. That’s why we set on this trip to blow our minds with new kinds of horizons in the entertainment industry. I am not that sure, if any of the cast that were with us follow us as far as we would like. That’s why we have started this blog to at least catch some of you poor souls and readers to join on our ride throughout the world.

With new goggles, and Google as our best friend, – ever. We searched for crazy and fun stuff to do in different locations. We didn’t care if it was on our home turf or out in the open. Also known as the “World Wide World” which brought us not only an incredible Cinema experience. But at times, we couldn’t understand anything and just had to go with the flow.

We humbly hope, that this new idea for the blog will bloom it to it’s full width cinema form. As well as bloom to the full capacity to reflect our wicked minds. Are you ready?

The movie “Dear God No!” has opened up a whole new world of terrible possibilities. Those which we hope to share on this almighty god forsaken blog-thingy. It’s not just about a horror movie, but a journey throughout the vast land that we have learned to call “the earth”. This globe that is now filled with show biz, and excitement is giving a change to anyone who dares to try. The Dear God No! was perhaps one of the best such examples, where by simply spewing a creation made a big enough speck onto this planet to have an impact.

This is about the harsh realities with no border in-between beauty and ugliness. It is an attempt for a man to find meaning in the non-meaning that surrounds us all. Like it or not, this ride will not be on motorcycles but on an even faster mobile highway of the beautiful mind.

We will go to see theatre, from movies to circus creations. Anything that makes that little speck just a little bit wider along with our understanding of what is entertainment. This is now something personal and we are more aware than ever how officially we are involved in the showbiz of the mother fucking earth.

No crew, no limits. Just a bunch of old and trashed directors roaming the world with a bag full of objectives, larger than mind. Dear god, please show as the light.